Halfway There!
Author: Anna Gribik
Week six marks the half-way point of the IRES cohort’s time in Italy! Looking back at these past weeks, I’m amazed at how much can happen in such a short time. I have made new friends, created many new memories, explored so much of Italy, and dug deeper into my research.
This week started off with data analysis and refining my presentation to present to the rest of the cohort. On Tuesday, we had a group meeting with all of the IRES students, Mike, and my Italian PI, Tommaso. During the meeting, I presented my work on 9-methylanthracene (9MA). The crystals are a beautiful shade of yellow orange, which happens to be my favorite color. Under Tommaso and his group’s guidance, I have been learning at an exponential rate. Everyone in the Molecular Spectroscopy group at the University of Bologna has been incredibly welcoming. Before arriving, I was worried about what it would be like to be a foreign student coming into a lab that I know nothing about. However, the members of this group have shown me nothing but kindness and hospitality. Everyone is more than willing to help with my data analysis, figure out a problem I’m stuck on, or teach me a concept I don’t quite understand. I have learned so much about science, and also a lot about Italian phrases.
The rest of the week looked a little different than usual, I had visitors! After my presentation, I took the rest of the week off to meet my boyfriend and his family in Rome to travel around Italy. On Wednesday, we spent the day “Rome-ing” around. We visited Vatican City, where we saw Pope Leo delivering a speech on peace, we toured Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museum, and the Sistine Chapel, as well as seeing many more sights of Rome.
Thursday was another day packed full of seeing historical sites. This time we were wandering the streets of Pompeii. We walked many miles around the ancient streets until it was time to catch the bus to get to Mount Vesuvius. We had just made it up the mountain, when we were told to turn around because a storm was about to roll in. It was us against the rain, which I didn’t mind since it had been so hot! After over 20,000 steps each of the past few days, we were all ready to sit during our train ride from Napoli to Bologna.
When we got to Bologna, I got to show them around the city I’ve called home for the past six weeks! We settled in and went for an aperitivo before going to dinner. After our rest day, we were right back to travelling. We caught a train to Venice! The streets are beautiful and peaceful. Venice has no roads and is connected through canals. While Venice has many bridges, roughly 435, to connect its islands, it doesn’t quite beat Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh is where my school, Carlow University, is located and we have 446 bridges!
Sunday was a bittersweet day of goodbyes. We spent the day enjoying Bologna before I brought my boyfriend and his family back to Bologna Centrale to send them to Rome to catch their flight home. On my train ride back to the apartment we have been staying in, I couldn’t help but wonder what the next week of lab had in store for me.
